New Store
Nieuwe Instituut is opening a fresh temporary branch of its New Store in Paris. New Store 4.0 – Fashion Farming can be visited at the Atelier Néerlandais during Paris Design Week 2025 (September 4–12). The fourth New Store pop-up focuses on the natural origins of textiles and a holistic approach to fashion. Visitors will be able to explore the possibilities of regenerative fashion, including by contributing to an ‘endlessly’ circular garment. Guided by French and Dutch experts, visitors to the store-turned-testing ground can knit using locally spun, dyed and designed wool from local sheep. Does a product feel more valuable when we know it has a longer lifespan?
Fashion Farming
Increasing numbers of fashion designers, garment makers and textile artists are moving to rural areas in search of the origins of the materials and techniques they use. These creators are rejecting industrial mass production methods. Instead, they are exploring a non-industrial approach based on regenerative agricultural knowledge and experience. Garments made exclusively from natural fibres and pigments are sometimes referred to as ‘field-to-fashion’, or ‘farm-to-closet’: essentially, such fashion goes straight from the producer your wardrobe.
Unlike large-scale production, the materials used in farm-to-closet clothing do not harm the source from which they originate. These natural materials actually promote regeneration. The extraction and processing of these raw materials is incorporated into the design and manufacturing process. But what exactly does this holistic approach to textiles and fashion entail? And how could it be applied to other, broader facets of design? For the New Store 4.0 – Fashion Farming, Dutch textile artist Claudy Jongstra and France-based Icelandic knitwear designer Ása Bríet Brattaberg propose a regenerative wool production cycle, in close collaboration with Collectif Tricolor, a professional association bringing together French sheep farmers, artisans, creators and distributors.
Partners
For the New Store pop-up 4.0, the Nieuwe Instituut is collaborating with the following experts:
- LOADS Collection,, the biodynamic textile label from the Loads initiative by Claudy Jongstra and Jesk Jongstra
- Knitwear designer Ása Bríet Brattaberg
- Collectif Tricolor, an association using innovative applications of wool to help various players in the French textile and fashion sector source and use as much of this beautiful and biodegradable material as possible locally.
Programme
- 4 – 12 September: visit the New Store Pop-Up 4.0 at the Atelier Néerlandais.
- Join the conversation with the designers and take part in the pop-up event between 4 and 7 September.
- 5 September: New Store Sessions – Fashion Farming Talk – 18:00 – 19:00 (note: limited spots available!)
- 6 September: Grand opening of the New Store 4.0, 19:00 – 22:00.
Fashion Farming Talk
Join the New Store team on 5 September for the Fashion Farming Talk and explore with them what it means to approach fashion and textiles holistically, from education and design to practice and industry. Hear from Dutch and French experts, including artist and designer Claudy Jongstra, Andrée-Anne Lemieux (director of sustainability at Institut Français de la Mode), and researcher Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Nieuwe Instituut), who will share their insights on how we can reshape existing systems together. The discussion will be moderated by French trend analyst Philip Fimmano, who founded the textile platform and magazine Talking Textiles with Lidewij Edelkoort and initiated the Farm to Fabric to Fashion master’s programme at the Polimoda fashion academy in Florence.
Plan your visit
22 Avenue Victoria, 75001 Paris
8 – 12 September
11:00 – 17:30
Admission to the New Store 4.0 – Fashion Farming is free.
The New Store 4.0 project is made possible by the Dutch Embassy in Paris. The Atelier Néerlandais, which is part of the embassy, serves as a platform for Dutch cultural entrepreneurs in design, the arts and publishing.